


Reconciliation

by Xephonia



Category: Yu-Gi-Oh! Zexal
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-13
Updated: 2016-11-13
Packaged: 2018-08-30 18:45:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,013
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8544910
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Xephonia/pseuds/Xephonia
Summary: The Tenjous and the Arclights are having a party that is meant to help them bond.  It goes just about as expected- totally chaotic.





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [stolashoots](https://archiveofourown.org/users/stolashoots/gifts).



Kaito is already cursing Faker on the way to the Arclights' mansion.

Only someone as irresponsible as Dr. Faker would suggest a party to reconcile and bond, just to then not show up himself.

"Nii-san, don't make such a face," Haruto chides immediately when he spots Kaito's frown. "You get to meet up with Chris."

"I get to meet up with Chris every sunday."

"Yeah, but you two are doing research, and so is everyone else."

Kaito sighs because _yeah, Haruto has a point._

The Arclight and Tenjou families may be researching other worlds together, and might even be warming up to each other, but the main focus is science and they've never been over at the Arclights' so far.

IV has been taking every single opportunity to ditch science in favour of dueling, Michael has been busy with middle school and Yuuma constantly convincing him to ditch Science Sunday (Haruto came up with that name) and Tron only ever talks to Faker, because talking to Kaito or Haruto would be awkward and potentially guilt-filled.

That's supposed to change today.

(Kaito doubts it.)

"Maybe Byron will actually talk to me for once! You know, given that there are no excuses now." Haruto grins and rings at the doorbell.

Kaito wonders why the button is placed low enough for Haruto to reach it, and by accident he says his thought aloud.

"Byron is around my height, you know."

"Oh."

They're too early, because Kaito hopes that coming earlier would make it end sooner.

Michael is the one to open the door, looking slightly nervous about the whole thing. "Hey, you two. The others are in the living room. We're having a little trouble right now, though—"

Kaito interrupts. "IV is arguing with Tron?"

"Well, kind of..."

Haruto smiles. "How about we go in and lighten up the mood a little?"

This time, both Kaito and Michael frown simultaneously.

Haruto pouts and makes his way to the living room— the room where the loud voices come from.

With not much else to do, Kaito and Michael follow.

They walk in on IV grabbing Chris' collar while looking about as happy as Kaito about the situation.

"Listen up, not even Kaito's old man is coming, so why do we even have to have a party in the first place—"

"For the last time, you can't keep using duels to avoid family interaction forever!" Chris is trying to behave all like an adult, but Kaito can tell he's overwhelmed.

"Dad is just watching cartoons anyway!"

And IV is saying the truth— Tron is watching cartoons.

With barely any delay, IV and Chris turn to look at the three newcomers.

"Welcome, you two. We're glad to have to you here," says Chris, and Kaito thinks it's out of character because while Chris may be overly formal occasionally, he isn't _that_ formal.

"Chris." Kaito sighs. "Can you stop trying to be the authority figure here? If the aim of this is to bond, then forcing IV into it won't help."

Chris almost looks insulted. "I just wanted to—"

IV smirks. "Arguing like a married couple already, huh?"

"You're the one who blackmailed Ryouga into joining a tag duel tournament with him, so shut up," Kaito hisses, and IV is about to retaliate when Michael hands him a cup of tea.

"What's that about, III?"

Michael smiles in response, and that's all there is to it.

Chris' mouth is open as if to say something, but the second youngest present person just handled the situation all on his own and there's nothing for Chris to do or say now.

The short moment of silence is broken by Haruto.

"Hey, isn't that the newest episode of D.D. ESPer Star Robin?" His eyes lighten up and he sits down next to Tron. "Can I watch it with you? I missed the airing last night, nii-san sent me to bed early."

Kaito has to hold back his laughter when Tron awkwardly scoots away a little, then nods slowly. 

"Yeah. Do you want to watch it from the start? We record most shows."

It's like Tron doesn't dare touch Haruto, because when Haruto hands him the TV remote, he tries his best to not let their hands touch.

(Kaito thinks that's understandable, but hilarious nonetheless given Tron's actual age.)

IV starts laughing. "Kaito, give me your dad's number. I need to send him a photo of this."

"...I'll think about it."

The look of Faker's face would be worth it. 

"Uhm," Michael looks at the clock and then at Chris. "Do we actually have a plan for this party?"

He speaks more quietly now, trying to not disturb Tron and Haruto.

Chris raises an eyebrow. "Don't people just sit in the same room and talk?" 

Kaito has to hold himself back from just leaving right then. But Haruto has been looking forward to this, so there's no choice but to endure it.

 _Probably it's better than playing board games, anyway_ , he adds in his thoughts.

Michael smiles nervously. "Not really. They usually eat or play games or... duel? Wait, I think only Yuuma does the dueling part."

IV smirks. "Well, we _could_ duel. What about a small tournament? My fanservice—" 

"No." Chris, Michael and Kaito simultaneously shake their heads. 

IV doesn't need to ask why, he already knows. "You're boring."

Chris crosses his arms. "Duels with you are the opposite of peace."

Kaito simply doesn't like sore losers, so he just nods to support Chris' statement.

IV starts pacing around in the room, almost as if that'd make them duel him. 

It's Michael's voice that makes him stop. "If we're not gonna do anything... would you mind if Kaito and I went to my room for a while?"

This time, he's getting stares from IV and Chris.

"Not that room," Michael adds. "I mean the one with the swords."

Kaito wonders what 'that room' is, but asking seems like it's a really bad idea.

It's not that he'd mind going there, it's probably better than the current awkward atmosphere, and Kaito has a soft spot for Michael anyway.

Chris shakes his head. "Maybe we should eat something first. People do that, right?" 

"It's not like we prepared anything. Besides, you should know best that eating together only works when everyone is equally interested in it." IV scowls.

Kaito thinks he understands that. He remembers the times Haruto tried to eat with him and Faker, and how awkward it got because Faker had trouble handling his guilt.

He doubts the Arclights are any different.

Chris sighs, "What about you, Kaito?"

Kaito turns to look to Haruto's direction. "Hey, Haruto. Are you hungry?"

"Not really, I already had breakfast and it's too early for lunch."

Kaito turns back to Chris. "Well, there's your answer."

Chris frowns and IV is about to open his mouth when Michael speaks up again.

"Okay. How about this then. Kaito and I go to my room while you two duel?" 

"Good idea." It's the second time IV and Kaito agree on something today. The first time was when they both showed obvious lack of interest in this party.

(Kaito would almost feel bad for Chris, but Chris himself is responsible for this situation.)

Chris lets his shoulders slump. "Fine, I'm watching over dad, IV and Haruto then."

"It's more that Haruto is watching over the three of you," Kaito mutters.

"Thank you, nii-sama!" Michael smiles and motions for Kaito to follow him.

~*~

"Swords."

Kaito stares at the giant collection; the perfectly polished swords in different sizes and designs, all neatly hanging on the wall.

"It's a hobby I took up," Michael comments as if that wasn't obvious already.

"Do you actually use those?"

"Yes. I actually tried to aim at Mr. Heartland once, but I wasn't that good at throwing swords yet back then."

Kaito vaguely remembers Chris telling him about that, but Kaito had been too busy with the dimensional portal to care at the time.

Sword throwing has always been kind of easy to Kaito— he thinks it's connected to Photon Mode, because the summoning of Galaxy-Eyes requires actual aim (the training with Droite was awful) and he's just gotten used to it at this point.

It then dawns on Kaito why Michael wanted to show him this.

"Oh, then you're showing me this because of Galaxy-Eyes."

"Yeah, I figured you probably practiced, too."

"...I did." Kaito is a bit more quiet now, and then he notices, "These are sorted by the age they're from, aren't they?"

Michael laughs sheepishly. "Yeah, they are. How were you able to tell?"

"Mizael and Ryouga told me about what the swords they used back in their age looked like."

"Do you think they'll mind if I ask them about the details?"

"Just try." Kaito shrugs.

Michael nods. "And... would you have a sword fight with me one day? My brothers never want to."

Kaito is about to reject because he never had formal education when suddenly, someone knocks at the door.

"Huh? That's rare." Michael opens the door. "Nii-sama?"

A very distressed Chris enters the room, clears his throat and, "We have a problem."

Kaito sighs, because Chris doesn't ask for help and stares at him expectantly. "What?"

"Haruto and dad went to buy caramel because Haruto didn't want to disturb you and—"

"Yeah but, where's the problem?"

"Our father hasn't bought groceries without me even once in the last 3 years."

"And...? It's not like anything can go wrong with buying groceries."

Michael speaks up again. "He was in the baby seat all these years. Does Haruto know how to buy groceries?"

Kaito frowns. "I'm not sure. He's been with Yuuma a lot lately... maybe I should check up on Haruto and Tron after all."

"There's another problem," Chris now mutters. "Thomas ran off to meet up with Ryouga."

Michael and Kaito give Chris confused looks.

"Didn't he turn 18 recently? He's an adult, stop babying him." Kaito takes out his D-Gazer— he had to get one because Orbital would keep running off with Obomi— and dials Orbital's number. "Orbital."

_"K—Kaito-sama!"_

"Give me Haruto's coordinates."

_"U—Understood! Uhm... in the grocery store that's around the corner from where you are."_

Kaito thinks he can hear Obomi saying that someone sucks, and he suspects they're at Yuuma's place. "Alright. Bye." He hangs up. "Well then, I'm going."

"I'm coming along." Chris hurries along Kaito, quickly followed by Michael.

"Do you even know what stealth is?"

"Wait, are we not just buying groceries for them?"

"...No wonder your dad can't do it alone."

~*~

Kaito isn't sure what he should think of what he's seeing.

On one hand, Tron did remember to bring sufficient amounts of money ("We could probably buy the entire candy section here, Haruto!"), on the other hand they are having a cart full of different kinds of caramel and Kaito is positive that even Haruto and Tron together can't hope to ever eat all of that.

"Kaito," Michael whispers, "maybe we should step in."

The three of them are staying on a safe distance, but the weird looks they're getting make it obvious how bad they are at stealth.

Kaito is about to reply when they hear someone shouting. "I asked you what goddamn kind of flour I need! What kind of question is 'for what'?! For a cake, of course! What else do you even use flour for?!"

"That's... IV-nii-sama, isn't it?"

"So he lied to me?"

"Chris, why are you even surprised by that?"

Michael, Chris and Kaito stare at each other for a bit, then.

"Alright. Michael, can you prevent a catastrophe and deal with IV? I take back what I said earlier, IV is the absolute opposite of an adult." 

Michael nods and heads off to the direction where the shouting came from.

"Uhm, Kaito."

"Yeah, Chris?"

"Haruto and dad are gone."

"...You go pick up basic cake ingredients minus flour. I'm gonna follow them."

"Wait, for what?"

"Isn't it obvious? They tried to surprise us with cake, but they don't know how to make one."

~*~

Kaito makes his way to the checkout, buys a pack of instant noodles for later— because the idea of only eating cake for an entire day sounds incredibly wrong, even for him— and sprints after Haruto and Tron. "Haruto!"

"Oh, nii-san! What are you doing here?"

"Isn't that obvious?"

"Well, yeah, but you're ruining the surprise."

"Did you two really believe that IV would know the ingredients of cake?"

Tron shrugs. "Doesn't he?"

"No, he doesn't. But we got this. I left Chris and Michael in there to deal with it."

Haruto laughs. "You don't know how to make a cake either, do you?"

Kaito's cheeks are slightly red. "Of course I do."

Tron just chuckles. "Let's go home to get the caramel sauce ready then."

~*~

"Nii-san."

"Haruto."

"You have no idea what you're doing, right?"

"I have no idea what you're talking about." Kaito drops the bag of caramels and reads the instructions for heating up caramel once more. 

"Just like Faker." Tron chuckles. "I remember when we tried to make chocolate cake."

"You two... what."

"Yeah, we never tried it again."

At least Kaito has someone to blame his lack of cooking ability on now.

Right before Kaito is about to give up and admit defeat, the three Arclight brothers return— IV is covered in flour.

"Nii-sama got into a fight," Michael explains when Tron raises an eyebrow, and he immediately goes to fixing Kaito's caramel problem. "Alright, you guys start placing the ingredients on the table, I can handle most of the cooking."

Kaito leans against the wall and watches the process. "Oi. Chris."

"Yeah."

"Why did you two buy so much tea?"

"That's why I usually do the buying and Michael does the cooking. We can't leave him in the tea section without this happening."

"Oh."

~*~

It takes no less than half an hour for Michael to prepare the cake, and Kaito is positive he should avoid giving Haruto too much caramel for the next days.

"So, whose idea was it?" Kaito looks at Haruto, because Haruto seems the most likely to suggest that.

"See, I wanted caramel and Byron wanted cake. And Thomas just wanted to get rid of Chris. So, I guess, the three of us?"

Suddenly, Kaito's D-Gazer buzzes. He takes the call without looking at it, "What is it now, Orbital? Oh, Dr. Fa— I mean, dad. Tron sent you a picture of the cake and you want to know if you're still invited? Wait—"

Kaito pauses to look at Tron who then smirks and nods. "—Alright, you can come. You're at the door already? Talk about manners." He hangs up.

"I'm opening the door," Haruto runs off.

"So," Kaito starts. "Why do you let him—"

Tron's smirk has yet to disappear. "He only gets to eat cake if he explains why he was not here in the first place."

~*~

It turns out that just like his sons, Faker has a soft spot for caramel, because he immediately admits that he was trying dodge responsibilities.

IV is still covered in flour and Chris has chocolate in his hair from when he tried to help Michael with the chocolate frosting, but they seem... content.

Michael, on the contrary, looks like he never touched any of the cooking utensils in the first place.

"So, you were being a coward," Kaito summarizes Faker's explanation.

Faker nods only slightly, and Chris scolds, "Kaito, isn't that a bit immature?"

"You guys should've seen how nii-san tried to schedule a duel with Yuuma just to avoid going here." Haruto laughs. "But it's fine now, isn't?"

Kaito has the slightest smile on his face because he can't deny that Haruto and Chris are right, and IV laughs.

"Well, we should start eating," Tron decides.

Haruto is the only one saying 'Itadakimasu', because he's the only one regularly eating in a Japanese household (and Yuuma's grandmother would scold him if he didn't say it).

The others give him confused looks at first, but then Kaito says it as well and so do the Arclights.

"I haven't said that in forever." Tron gets a slice of cake for himself. "The last time was back when Kazuma tried to get me and Faker to like takoyaki."

Faker chuckles at that. "I couldn't stand it."

Kaito takes a bite from the cake. It's not too sugary, and he wonders if he should learn how to cook after all.

"So, Thomas," Chris begins slowly. "Was the thing with Ryouga—"

"An excuse? Yeah. You're pretty gullible."

There's lots of laughter because yeah, Chris is gullible, and then Tron speaks up again. "Michael, did you finally get to show your sword collection to someone?"

"Yeah," Michael smiles. "But from his expression, I can tell Kaito doesn't want to fight, right?"

Kaito nods. "Yeah, I'd rather pass on that."

"How about learning how to cook and bake then?"

Kaito hesitates, but Haruto lightly nudges him with the elbow twice, "Nii-san, this is a good idea."

(He can't say no to Haruto.)

"...Fine."

~*~

It's surprisingly late when the Tenjous— actually, Haruto— decide it's time to leave.

"See, nii-san interacted with more people today than in the two weeks combined; Michael and Thomas are sleeping anyway, Chris and dad... well, they look a bit exhausted. So I think we'd better leave now." Haruto smiles.

"Then take this with you." Tron hands him a bag of caramels. "That one was left over."

Haruto's eyes are shining with happiness, and he gives Tron a short hug. "Thank you, Byron!" Haruto motions for Kaito and Faker to get up, and they do, all while trying to not wake IV and Michael (who, thanks to sleeping close to each other, are now _both_ covered in flour). 

"See you on sunday."

Kaito nods. "See you."

~*~

_And in retrospect_ , Kaito thinks as he walks holding Haruto's hand, _maybe this wasn't that bad._

_Annoying? Yes. But bad? Not really._

(And maybe Kaito will live off of something that isn't instant noodles in the future.)


End file.
